Inti Raymi

Hello. My name is Pachacuti. I am the leader of my people, the Inca. We call our leader the Sapa Inca. We live high up in the mountains. We have a very special friend. Our friend is the sun. We call the sun Inti. Inti is so bright and warm. Inti helps our corn grow tall. Inti helps our potatoes grow big. But in the winter, the days get short. The air gets chilly. It feels like our friend Inti is very far away. We miss the sun's warm hugs. We want our friend to come back close to us.

So, we have a very big party for the sun. It is called Inti Raymi. This means the 'Festival of the Sun'. Our party happens every year around June 24th, when the sun is farthest away. Everyone travels to my big city, Cusco. We all put on our brightest, most colorful clothes. Some people wear red feathers. Others wear yellow blankets. We look like a garden full of happy flowers or rainbows climbing the mountains. We play music to make Inti happy and feel our love. Boom, boom, boom go the drums, like a giant’s happy heartbeat. Tweet, tweet, tweet go the flutes, like little birds singing a sunny song. Everyone dances together in the big city square. We sing happy songs to the sky. We are showing Inti how much we love him.

Our big party is our way of saying thank you. We say, 'Thank you, Inti, for the warm light. Thank you for helping our food grow'. We ask Inti to please come back. We ask for long, sunny days again. And do you know a secret? Inti always listens. After our big, happy party, the sun starts to feel warmer. The days start to get longer. Inti comes back to us, promising a new time of sunshine and yummy food for everyone. Our party worked, and I made sure my people always remembered to celebrate our friend, the sun.